Shimmer
The Shimmer is the main antagonist of the movie Annihilation. He is an amorphous being that arrived on Earth via a meteorite, and his goal is to assimilate all DNA and mix it until he has assimilated everything. Biography The Shimmer arrived on Earth via meteorite, crashing into a lighthouse by the sea next to a park. The Shimmer began projecting an electromagnetic field around his new home, mutating the plants and animals by mixing their DNA with that of others. The Shimmer's field soon grew to encapsulate the entire park. The US Government soon took notice of the forcefield and, designating the area surrounded by the electromagentic field as "Area X", began sending squads of soldiers in to investigate, including one team that included Lena's husband Kane. In the movie, none of these teams return, though in the book, several squads that patrolled only the outer areas of Area X manage to report back and establish the "rules" of the Shimmer. Eventually an all female team comprised of Lena, Dr. Ventress, Anya Thorensen, Josie Radek and Cass Sheppard is sent in to travel to the lighthouse and report back what they found. In the course of their journey there, the team is whittled down until only Lena and Ventress remain (Anya and Cass are both killed by a mutated bear, while Josie chooses to allow herself to be absorbed and transformed into a plant by the Shimmer). After being separated from Dr. Ventress, Lena reaches the lighthouse, where she finds a hole in the bottom part of its wall and a video camera on a tripod set up next to a dead, disintegrated body sitting beside the wall. Looking at the last thing recorded on the video camera, Lena discovers a video where Kane declares that he no longer knows if he still is himself due to the Shimmer scrambling his DNA, revealing that his flesh now moves similar to a liquid. He then ignites a phosphorous grenade and blows himself up before another Kane walks onscreen and turns off the camera. Shocked by her discovery, Lena ultimately decides to venture down into the hole where she finds a vast, empty chamber where Dr. Ventress, who had now been partially absorbed into the Shimmer, had her DNA warped with and her eyes apparently removed. She announces to Lena that the Shimmer will continue to absorb everything and fragment its genetic structure until it has been obliterated, before being fully assimilated into the Shimmer (dying in the process). The Shimmer then reveals himself to Lena, taking the form of a shapeless, glowing, seemingly cloudy fractal. It intakes a drop of blood from Lena and uses it to create a humanoid entity that mimics Lena. Lena first tries shooting the humanoid, only for her bullets to be absorbed by the entity. She then dashes out of the chamber and back up to the lighthouse, where she finds the humanoid entity waiting for her. Lena then tries to attack it with brute force, only for the entity to mimic her attack and knock her back. She attempts to run out the lighthouse door, but the entity also runs towards it and pins her up against it, preventing her from opening the door. However, upon realizing that it would mimic everything she did, Lena gives the humanoid a phosphorous grenade and causes it to inherit her suicidal urges before causing it to activate the grenade and set itself aflame. As Lena runs out of and away from the lighthouse, the entity stumbles around the lighthouse, causing the area around it to burn before finding itself back down the hole and in the Shimmer's underground chamber, which it sets on fire as well. The fire spreads across all of the his creations, causing them to burn and disintegrating the force-field around the beach and the park, thus destroying the Shimmer once and for all. Category:Annihilation (movie) Category:Characters